


Mail for Griffin

by BreitzbachBea



Category: Original Work
Genre: Arguing, Family Issues, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Letters, Royal Air Force, Soldiers, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 15:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20312029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BreitzbachBea/pseuds/BreitzbachBea
Summary: It's Europe, somewhere between 1939 and 1945 - Europe, somewhere between madness and dead man's bravery.It's perfect for a dead man walking like Griffin, who's got his head in the clouds, and it's a time of trial for his friend Kimberley, who's with both feet firmly on the ground.However, a letter for Griffin might show Kimberley why he likes to leave this earth behind.





	Mail for Griffin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [C0FFINATED](https://archiveofourown.org/users/C0FFINATED/gifts).

> This was a commission written for C0FFINATED on twitter, featuring his two pilot OCs.

There was something different about the mail today and it wasn’t the fact that Griffin got a letter. 

On the rare occasions that he received letters, he barely read before he threw them away. Once or twice Kimberley had even seen Griffin hand them back immediately or shake his head or wave his hand when someone informed him of his mail. 

“If there’s money in them, send them back,” he had said once. “Or keep them.” That was what he had told the woman who was in charge of the mail and winked at her. A more than clumsy attempt at flirting that had rather sounded like he had offered her a bribe than a gift. 

Or maybe that had been intentional, another comment that was steeped in dark humour underneath the surface. At first, Kimberley had attributed some of Griffin’s clumsy comments and behaviour to bad manners and sheer ignorance of social norms. By now, he often wondered if any word that Griffin ever uttered could truly be honest and naïve or if sarcasm was all he knew to speak. 

The woman who handed Griffin his letter had a grave expression, which seemed to surprise Griffin so that he took the letter without any word at all. 

He read the front of the envelope and his eyes were still wide open. He turned the envelope. 

“And here’s the mail for you, Mister Kimberley.” His attention was directed to the woman, who handed him a batch of letters. There was one of his family, Adelaide’s family and Adelaide herself. Sometimes, only his parents would send something or neither of their families wrote to him, but there’d be a letter from Adelaide every time. 

He sighed with a smile on his face and tucked her letter behind the others. He’d read it later, this evening when he was in bed. He’d take her time for her later. 

Before he opened the letter from Adelaide’s family, he looked over to Griffin. 

Now his mouth hung open as well. He had opened the envelope and stared at the letter. 

“Good news?” Kimberley asked with a smile. 

Griffin didn’t look up. 

His smile broke a little, eyebrows slightly furrowed. “Or bad news?” 

Griffin looked at him, still aghast and it froze the awkward smile on Kimberley’s face into place. 

Griffin swallowed and ran a hand through his hair. “I … don’t know.” He said. “I’ll have to see.” 

Kimberley stretched his arm out as Griffin turned to go. “Can I help? May I see?” 

Blood rose to Griffin’s head as he stared at him and he shook his head. “Ah, no, it’s nothing of importance,” he said and threw it into the room’s waste basket. 

Like so many others. So many other letters that Kimberley had never read, that often Griffin didn’t have seemed to read. 

Kimberley’s hands trembled when he put his own mail onto the room’s desk. He knew he shouldn’t do this as he reached into the waste basket. One did not read other people’s mail if one wasn’t of the censor’s staff. 

The door hadn’t fully closed behind Griffin yet as he straightened up and read the lines. 

It was a handwritten letter by a landlord, who spoke of the death of Griffin’s father and demanded a rent payment from Griffin, since nothing had been paid for the past month. 

The door opened and it was Griffin again. He kept close to the wall, didn’t look at him and reached into the waste basket. 

Kimberley’s heart beat faster. 

Griffin fished the envelope out of it, but still couldn’t find the letter. 

He looked up and over to Kimberley. 

“Kimberley, what are you doing there?” he asked him calmly. 

Kimberley’s heart was in his mouth. He swallowed and took a deep breath. “Why didn’t you tell me your father died?” he asked. 

Griffin winced, but his expression was unchanged. 

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you say it’s nothing of importance?” He sighed and took a deep breath, one hand on his temple. “Griffin, I apologise for reading your mail, but … you never tell me anything! Your father died! What about your mother?! I’m sure,” he said and waved the letter; since he had begun talking, he had come closer to Griffin,” she’s in trouble, otherwise the landlord wouldn’t write to you!” 

“Kimberley, that are none of your worries,” Griffin said. 

“And you act like it’s none of yours either!” Kimberley said. “I wonder, how many of the letters you threw away before had news like this inside?” 

Griffin had balled his hands into fists. They shook and Kimberley’s face turned a shade paler. He reached out with his other hand. “I’m sorry, I know it’s a hard time for you right now. But it’s the same for your family, you need each other. You should see if you can take time off and see your mother, at least. Here, I’ll help you –“ 

“Give me back the letter,” Griffin said. He held his hand out. His voice was thin and his face expressionless, though he could see tension underneath – around his eyes, his mouth, the eyebrows. “Read your own. Worry about your own family and pretend I don’t have any. Like I do.” A small and cynical smile appeared on his face. 

Kimberley grid his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows. “Griffin, you can’t just pretend your home doesn’t exist just because you aren’t there! Isn’t that what we’re fighting for? Home?” he shouted at him. “Even you, when you hide it under all this cynicism! I wonder what your father would’ve said if he saw you like that!” 

“Nothing! He’d say nothing! If anything, he wouldn’t have told me anything new!” Griffin said and Kimberley was taken aback. “He drank and beat us and now he probably drank himself to death! Okay?” Griffin’s chest heaved up and down. There was a crooked smile on his face. “Are you happy now?” He took the letter from Kimberley’s hand. “I’ll send them the money, it’s no use if I just sit on it before the Krauts shoot me down, anyways. I’ve got nothing to lose, nothing.” 

They stared at one another for another moment before Griffin turned on his heels and walked out. 

He threw the door shut behind him and Kimberley winced. 

Behind him, he knew, laid his own letters. Written by his proud father and father in law, signed by his caring mother and mother in law and one letter, stuffed to the brim with love in every word, by his wife Adelaide.


End file.
